It's true. It's also true that for our ancestors who toiled in farm fields picking weeds by hand, or risked being mangled by machines in a factory, a cubicle would seem like absolute luxury.

But, comparing ourselves to previous generations of office workers, the only thing that seems similar to what "knowledge workers" have to deal with today are the typing pool / secretarial pool / steno pool from ye olde days:

Brakes are mandated by law